Will that new strategy help win back minority voters or is it too late . Wild weather. Damaging tornadoes in the midwest. A new round of devastating flooding in the south while in california a raging Wildfire Forces new evacuations and now threatens the historic first castle. And expanding the family. Were getting a new puppy with a purpose raising a service dog for a deserving veteran. Our new friend is in that litter and youre about to meet him, today, monday, august 22nd, 2016. Announcer from nbc news this is today with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today on a monday morning. Our first day back all of us in studio 1a. Nothing better than walking in wait, what . I hug you and you get new puppy smell. Were so happy to have you guys back. Its boring around here without you. I brought you a little puppy. I had to give you a welcome. I cannot wait to meet this little critter. It will be fun. Meanwhile, we have a lot of olympic news to talk about. Its kind of the closing ceremony. After all the headlines that led up to this game, all the po of rio pulled it off. It was a spectacular ending. Nbcs Peter Alexander in rio. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning to you. Where did everybody go . You guys leave and the storm clouds move in here in rio. Over the course of these games coming in, there were serious worries about the citys preparedness, about the zika virus, about toxic water, the games went off with only a few minor hiccups and after these exhilarating last couple weeks, this city came together. Epic carnivallike party. Christ the redeemer arms outstretched. Reporter the closing ceremony as colorful as the games themselves. Simone biles, americas 49 gymnastics giant. The most stunning athlete i have ever seen. Reporter leading the way for team usa. With four gold medals in rio, she was given the honor of carrying the american flag. The final celebration a culmination of olympic here in rio. The u. S. Mens Basketball Team reigning supreme earning its third consecutive gold medal. The United States has won the gold. Reporter blowing out serbia, a 30point win. Nba star Carmelo Anthony overcome by emotion. Announcing his olympic retirement. Despite everything thats country, we got to be united. And im glad i did what i did. I stepped up to the challenge. Reporter so did brazil earning the gold medal this soccer crazed country so badly wanted. Brazil strikes olympic gold. Reporter captain namar filled with joy and relief after knocking home the game winning goal against germany in a dramatic shootout. Adding to its medal count commanding in the ring. She knows shes closing in on the gold. Reporter clarissa shields punching her way to the podium. Her second straight boxing gold. The First American ever to do it. Kyle snyder becoming the youngest olympic champion in u. S. History. Mens marathon got their medals including the american that took home bronze. Steeling the show, japans Prime Minister paying homage to super mario. With the olympic flame extinguished, the rio games have come to a close. Here is the medal count one final time. Team usa crushing the competition. Dominant in these games. 121 total medals. 46 golds way ahead of china, Great Britain and russia. The most medals for the u. S. In more than three decades and the most medals ever in a nonboycotted olympic games. Three folks came out. Probably still having a good time. Thanks very much. There were other stories that came out of these games like the embarrassing incident that involved four american swimmers including ryan lochte that became a blemish on the games. He said he and his teammates were robbed at gun point but Surveillance Video paints a different picture. Over the weekend we sat down with lochte exclusive to get his side of the story. You guys go to the bathroom in the bu. Me is a metal framed poster of some kind or advertisement of some kind. And you just ripped it off the wall . Yeah. And i have no idea i mean, i was very intoxicated. I have no idea why. It was immature. It was childish. It made a big noise. It made a big noise. And we continued to walk out and get in the taxi. Damage or destroy or vandalize anything in that gas station that night . Im not speaking for them. You were with them. Do you know if they also did things like that . No. You dont know or they didnt . No. It was me. Im taking full responsibility for everything. I mean, it was childish and immature. I want to make sure about the bathroom side of this. You heard the police. The police say there was also damage in that bathroom door was damaged. I think they said a mirror was damaged and soap dispenser was damaged. At any point did you enter the bathroom and damage those things . No. You never went in the bathroom . We never went in the bathroom. Did you kick the door of the bathroom . I like i said, i was very intoxicated. I dont remember. Is it possible that you damaged the door to the bathroom, perhaps even kicked it International Olympic committee set up a Disciplinary Commission to investigate that incident. U. S. Olympic officials promise further action. Well have more with our exclusive interview with ryan lochte in our next half hour including his description of that confrontation with the Security Guard at the gas station. We move now to politics and the president ial race and indication this morning that donald trump may be looking to change his tone on one of his most controversial proposals. Nbcs Hallie Jackson is at trump tower for us this good morning. Reporter savannah, good morning. Those new indications on immigration arent coming from the candidate himself but from his new Campaign Manager who insists even after a tumultuous seven days that donald trump is having his best week. A new week and a new tone for Donald Trumps team. Seeming to soften his stance supporting a socalled Deportation Force to remove the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the force . To be determined. Reporter the candidate himself silent about it. His immigration policy Still Standing online with trump still struggling to win over minority voters. Not just latinos but africanamericans from whom he has about 1 support. Youre living in poverty. Your schools are no good. You have no jobs. 58 of your youth is unemployed. At lose . Reporter that argument to black voters delivered to mostly white communities. His comments are for all americans, and i live in a white community. Im white. I was very moved by his comment. In other words, he is trying to tell americans that we can do better. Reporter now as trump tries to stay on message for another week and on attack against Hillary Clinton, one of his top surrogates is raising eyebrows raising questions about clintons health. Yourself. Reporter clintons team has shutdown what they call deranged conspiracy theories about her physical fitness. She is facing questions now about why the Clinton Foundation will stop accepting corporate and foreign donations if shes elected but didnt do so while she was secretary of state. What the foundation is saying is that they dont want to become a distraction. They want to go as far possibly can to make sure theres no possible conflict of interest. Reporter and this morning clintons email controversy is again in the headlines as colin powell pushes back against a report clinton told the fbi he advised her on the use of private email. The former secretary of state is telling People Magazine that clintons people have been trying to pin it on him. His office acknowledged to nbc that powell did send a memo started using hers. Lets bring in james carville, the mastermind behind bill clintons run to the white house. U hes out with a new book. Were still right, theyre still wrong. Still blunt. Lets pick up where hallie left off. Collin powell saying to People Magazine trying to pin this on him. Lets pretend youre in your old job working for Hillary Clinton. What should she do about this email issue that continues to dog her . Maybe documentary evidence. A memo. If they have that, they should get that out and show that. I would stop there. Well see what it is. It was a memo so after theres a piece of paper floating around you can go back to anything in politics and say could you have done this better at this time and done that but right now theyre up in the polls and theyre ahead and anything that you do in politics you could say that we handled this well. Theres always something you could have, would have, should have. Theyre ahead but a reboot on the trump side of things. A softer side of him. Hes walking back some of his most controversial policy issues including this mass deportation. Howor campaign be that this is going to actually help him . We dont exactly know if hes apologizing but not sure for what. I read a story this morning and his Campaign Manager says that hes going to redo this. Its not trump himself saying that. I think that everything that i read indicates to me theyre not doing things that a campaign does. They dont have the organization. I dont know. Reince priebus said by labor day this will be an even race. Would you like to take that bet . I would like to take that bet but its not labor day that counts. Its election day that counts and i think shell be way ahead by then. On friday donald trump went to louisiana. You have family in baton rouge. Its a mess down there. He goes down there and looks at the damage firsthand and talks to people before president obama. It wasnt until after his visit that hil the phone and called the governor there. Did he appear more president ial in the wake of that tragedy than Hillary Clinton . I think the time line is that she and the governor spoke. The governor had said he would prefer that people come later because they have particularly the president come. Im congratulagrateful that he. Im sure the president is going to come on tuesday. Has been really good. Thats the total agreement. I want to ask you a question about the book. You say elections are lost by the base. If people dont understand that theres been a clear performance differential between the two parties, they will think theres not a stake in there. I think democrats have a large stake in there. Weve had two successful democratic presidency with disastrous republican president in the middle. As democrats we have to remind our own people of that. Thats part of this book is more for converted than anything. Worried about overconfidence and democrats say why bother show up . We never get overconfident about anything. Knowing mrs. Clinton and knowing little confidence. The book is called, were still right, theyre still wrong. Available on amazon and bookstores tomorrow. Texas and louisiana could be the next state where zika will spread. A doctor from the National Institutes of health says flooding in those states expanded mosquito breeding grounds. He said the u. S. For up to two years. Infections traced to local mosquitos have been found in two parts of south florida including in miami beach. Now to the Severe Weather impacting millions across the country. There were at least 16 reports of tornadoes over the weekend. Most of them in ohio, indiana and michigan. Emergency crews spent much of the day on sunday clearing trees and power lines that came down on roads there. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses had power knocked out. Meanwhile in central struggling to keep a raging wildfire there away from historic castle. The chimney fire burned more than 27,000 acres and at one point was two miles from the castle. Farther south evacuation orders have been lifted after a massive fire destroyed more than 100 homes in San Bernardino county. People in texas are cleaning up after a weekend of flash flooding in hard hit louisiana expecting more rain today. There tomorrow. Mr. Roker, theres a lot going on. That rain youre talking about is going to come down in parts of texas and louisiana looking at more heavy rain and then it moves to the north. You can see heavy showers and thunderstorms firing up between Corpus Christi and san antonio. Activity also firing up along the stationary front into louisiana and arkansas so lower flood threat for louisiana but later on in the next several days as we move further up into the Mississippi River valley from des moines, quincy, we could look at severe storms and anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rain. Were going to get to your local hey, youre clarence yes, sir. You know, at the model year end clarence event, you can get a great deal on this 2016 passat. Steve. Yeah . Clarence is on a roll. Yeah. I wish theyd name an event after me. Same here. But the model year end becky event . Thats no good. Thats just vandalism. Whatever you want to call it, dont miss the volkswagen model year end event. Hurry in for a onethousand dollar volkswagen reward card and 0 apr on a new 2016 passat. Chris good monday morning, everyone. After Severe Weather overnight and very early this morning, we return to sunshine after. Dry breeze and lowering humidity as the dew points falling from the 06s and 70s this morning a couple degrees either side of 80. Close to the boston area. Mid70s in the worcester hills. Low to mid80s south of boston. Clear tonight. A little taste of fall. Upper 40s in the cooler suburbs. 58 in boston. Sevenday forecast featuring a lot of dry weather. An isolated risk of a storm on and thats your latest weather. Coming up, more of our exclusive interview with ryan lochte. What he now says happened during that confrontation with a security gua station and his message to the people of brazil. Start of a special rossen report series. This one is all about saving you money. This morning do you really have to spend so much to get a great tasting cup of coffee . But first, this is today on nbc. Frank dreamed of exploring costa rica. But with the jetblue card, he got there faster than he could learn about the wildlife. Big smiles. Fly faster than you think. Two years ago, silvertech had 40 to 50 employees. Now we have 60 to 70. We took a big hit in the recession, but were back, strong. We had about 70 employees a few years ago, we have over a hundred today. Chynoweth businesses like mine see how Maggie Hassan keeps this economy moving. Mary collins shes controlled spending and shes balanced the budget. Narrator and cnbc named New Hampshire the most businessfriendly state in the country. Im Maggie Hassan, and i approve this message done in New Hampshire. Just ahead, the marathoner the celebration. Did we mention were getting a new puppy with a purpose. What about this guy . This guys. Been through a lot. Dogs bring out the good in us. Pedigree brings out the good in them. Feed the good. The things that i consume on a daily basis, a lot of it is very acidic. The enamel on my teeth was actually weakening. The whiteness my teeth didnt look as healthy as others. My dentist said that pronamel would help fight against that erosion that foods and drinks were causing. So it was really important to start using the pronamel. Itll be one less thing you have to worry about. Pronamel is now giving me the confidence to know that im doing the right thing. So its nice to know that its as simple as that. Hi, im the honorary real trix rabbit. General mills wants me to let you know that we use real cereals tasty, and these guys for awesome colors. That means no artificial flavors or colors. Nice. And now for the moment ive been waiting for. 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Theyre breathable underwear from fruit of the loom. Yes, they have these tiny holes to let the air through, can you help me . Wa wa weewoo look at those. Can you feel this . [blowing] turn around for me. Seriously . Yeah. Slow. Slow. Slower. Slower is that okay. I dont think you should get that dress. It doesnt fit. Stay cool with breathable underwear from fruit of the loom. Technology is useful. Fi just bought a book. And while i was telling you about the book, i downloaded a song. Oh, and full disclosure, ate. Guilty. The point is, life is digital. So, carmax, created a site where you can reserve a car online. Come in when its convenient, your car will be waiting. Just another thing to make buying a car better for you. Reads this tweet that i just posted. Oh, that appears to be trending. When you can take your hands off the wheel to get out of a tight spot. When you can relax with your foot off the brake and stay put. 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